Garlic (Allium sativum) is one of those interesting ingredients that can be traced all the way back to the ancient Egyptians. That’s thousands of years of use!
You can see the little garlic pieces sitting in water just waiting to be scooped out for your favorite recipe. Have you ever wondered why this type of garlic does not taste the same as fresh cut garlic?
Inside Garlic are a number of healthy phytochemicals that have antioxidant activity however they have to be activated. So in other words timing is everything.
If you take a fresh garlic clove that has not been cut or opened it is for all intent and purposes, odorless. One of those ‘odorless’ antioxidants is Alliin which by itself is odorless because it has not been activated.
When raw garlic is crushed, chewed, or minced, an enzyme known as alliinase is released that leads to the characteristic garlic smell.
This enzyme converts alliin to the many compounds including allicin. This potent antioxidant, allicin, has been suggested to promote a healthy heart, reduce blood pressure, prevent blood from aggregating, reduce inflammation, inhibit harmful bacteria, as well as other benefits.
The key point is that allicin is stable for only a few hours to a few days. This means that the health benefits found in Garlic will not be present in garlic that has been sitting on a shelf. This means that minced garlic in water sitting on a shelf for months on end has lost almost all of its health promoting potential.
Here’s a few tips when cooking with garlic
- Use fresh garlic cloves
- After crushing or mincing allow the garlic to sit for 5-10 minutes. (This allows more allicin to be made.)
- The healthy antioxidants are only stable for a few hours to a few days. (Just think – that jar has been sitting there for months and months!!)
- It is best to crush or mince garlic prior to heating it. (Heating a garlic clove inhibits the enzyme alliinase preventing conversion from alliin to allicin.)
- DO NOT use minced garlic from a jar
Take away message: The best way to get the health benefits provided from garlic is through the use of fresh garlic. The main phytochemical in garlic that is formed when garlic is minced is only stable for a few hours to a few days. This means that minced garlic in a jar will not contain the same health promoting properties as fresh garlic.
His research on plant medicine has led to more than 45 publications and abstracts.This research has been presented at international meetings in the USA, France, Turkey, Peru, Israel, Austria, and Italy.
Categories: Antioxidant, Food, Heart, Inflammation